The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that determines the Southeastern Conference's season champion. For its first 32 seasons, the championship game pitted the Eastern Division regular season champion against the Western Division regular season champion. With the SEC eliminating football divisions after the 2023 season, the game now features the top two teams in the conference standings. The game is regularly played on the first Saturday of December. The first two editions of the game were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with all subsequent games being held in Atlanta since 1994, first at the Georgia Dome, and at its replacement Mercedes-Benz Stadium since 2017.
Eleven of the sixteen current SEC members have played in the SEC Championship Game, with Kentucky, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, and Oklahoma being the exceptions. During the divisional era, the overall series was led 19–13 by the Western Division.
While eleven SEC members have played in the game, only six have won: Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, and LSU. Each of these teams has won the championship multiple times. South Carolina, Mississippi State, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas have played in the game but failed to win it.
History The SEC was the first NCAA conference in any division to hold a football championship game that was exempt from NCAA regular-season game limits. This was made possible in 1987, when the NCAA membership approved a proposal sponsored by the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association allowing any conference with at least 12 football members to split into divisions and stage a championship game between the divisional winners. The SEC took advantage of this rule by adding the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina in 1992, bringing the conference membership to 12, and splitting into two football divisions. The format has since been adopted by other conferences to decide their football champion (the first being the Big 12 in 1996).
The first two SEC Championship Games were held at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. From 1994 until 2016, the game was played at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Following the closure and subsequent demolition of the Georgia Dome in 2017, the SEC Championship Game remained in Atlanta, moving to the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium that replaced the Georgia Dome under a ten-year contract. In November 2023, the SEC signed a five-year extension with Mercedes-Benz Stadium with an additional five-year option which will get the game at the stadium until 2032.
The SEC Championship Game has been played on the first Saturday of December with two exceptions. The 2001 edition was moved to the second Saturday in December so games cancelled during the week of the September 11 attacks could be rescheduled on the first Saturday. The 2020 edition was pushed back to the third week of December as part of the adjustments in the 2020 season for the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the SEC expanding to 16 teams with the 2024 arrival of Oklahoma and Texas, it announced on June 1, 2023, that it would eliminate its football divisions at that time. Championship games from 2024 forward will feature the top two teams in the conference standings.
Between 2006 and 2013 the winner of the SEC Championship Game went on to play in the BCS National Championship Game eight straight years, posting a 6–2 record. Since 2014, the SEC Championship Game winner has gone on to appear in the College Football Playoff every season, posting a 8–2 record in the national semi-final and a 4–4 record in the College Football Playoff National Championship. Two of these losses in the National Championship were to another team from the SEC, including a rematch of the 2021 SEC Championship game in the eventual National Championship.
Results Results from all SEC Championship games that have been played. Rankings are from the AP Poll released prior to matchup. 1992 Alabama 28 Florida 21Legion Field • Birmingham, AL 83,091 9.8 CB Antonio Langham, Alabama 1993 Alabama 13 Florida 28 76,345 QB Terry Dean, Florida 1994 Alabama 23 Florida 24Georgia Dome • Atlanta, GA 74,751 10.5 DT Ellis Johnson, Florida 1995 Arkansas 3 Florida 34 71,325 7.2 QB Danny Wuerffel, Florida 1996 Alabama 30 Florida 45 74,132 7.0 1997 Auburn 29 Tennessee 30 74,896 QB Peyton Manning, Tennessee 1998 Mississippi State 14 Tennessee 24 74,795 WR Peerless Price, Tennessee 1999 Alabama 34 Florida 7 71,500 WR Freddie Milons, Alabama 2000 Auburn 6 Florida 28 73,427 QB Rex Grossman, Florida 2001 LSU 31 Tennessee 20 74,843 7.0 QB Matt Mauck, LSU 2002 Arkansas 3 Georgia 30 75,835 3.2 QB David Greene, Georgia 2003 LSU 34 Georgia 13 74,913 4.1 RB Justin Vincent, LSU 2004 Auburn 38 Tennessee 28 74,892 4.8 QB Jason Campbell, Auburn 2005 LSU 14 Georgia 34 73,717 3.9 QB D. J. Shockley, Georgia 2006 Arkansas 28 Florida 38 73,374 4.7 WR Percy Harvin, Florida 2007 LSU 21 Tennessee 14 73,832 6.0 QB Ryan Perrilloux, LSU 2008 Alabama 20 Florida 31 75,892 10.4 QB Tim Tebow, Florida 2009 Alabama 32 Florida 13 75,514 11.8 QB Greg McElroy, Alabama 2010 Auburn 56 South Carolina 17 75,802 6.3 QB Cam Newton, Auburn 2011 LSU 42 Georgia 10 74,515 7.4 CB Tyrann Mathieu, LSU 2012 Alabama 32 Georgia 28 75,624 10.0 RB Eddie Lacy, Alabama 2013 Auburn 59 Missouri 42 75,632 8.7 RB Tre Mason, Auburn 2014 Alabama 42 Missouri 13 73,526 7.7 QB Blake Sims, Alabama 2015 Alabama 29 Florida 15 75,320 8.3 RB Derrick Henry, Alabama 2016 Alabama 54 Florida 16 74,6327.0 LB Reuben Foster, Alabama 2017 Auburn 7 Georgia 28Mercedes-Benz Stadium • 76,532 8.4 LB Roquan Smith, Georgia 2018 Alabama 35 Georgia 28 77,141 10.5RB Josh Jacobs, Alabama 2019 LSU 37 Georgia 10 74,150 7.9QB Joe Burrow, LSU 2020 Alabama 52 Florida 46 16,520 4.9 RB Najee Harris, Alabama 2021 Alabama 41 Georgia 24 78,030 8.2 QB Bryce Young, Alabama 2022 LSU 30 Georgia 50 74,810 5.6 QB Stetson Bennett, Georgia 2023 Alabama 27 Georgia 24 78,320 8.9 QB Jalen Milroe, Alabama 2024 Texas 19 Georgia 22 Mercedes-Benz Stadium • 74,9168.6CB Daylen Everette, Georgia2025 Alabama 7 Georgia 28 77,247QB Gunner Stockton, Georgia
Results by team 16Alabama1151992, 1999, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021, 20231993, 1994, 1996, 2008, 202513Florida761993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2006, 20081992, 1999, 2009, 2015, 2016, 202013Georgia672002, 2005, 2017, 2022, 2024, 20252003, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2021, 20237LSU522001, 2003, 2007, 2011, 20192005, 20226Auburn332004, 2010, 20131997, 2000, 20175Tennessee231997, 19982001, 2004, 20073Arkansas03 1995, 2002, 20062Missouri02 2013, 20141Mississippi State01 19981South Carolina01 20101Texas01 20240Kentucky00 0Oklahoma00 0Ole Miss00 0Texas A&M00 0Vanderbilt00
Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt have yet to make an appearance in an SEC Championship Game.
Home/away designation During the championship's divisional era, the team designated as the "home" team alternated between division champions. The designation went to the Eastern champion in even-numbered years and the Western champion in odd-numbered years.
After the 2020 contest, the designated "home" team is 16–13 overall in SEC championship games.
In 2009, the Western champion, Alabama, was the home team, ending a streak where the SEC Western team had worn white jerseys in nine consecutive SEC Championship Games (2000–2008). This was because LSU had represented the West in the previous four seasons that the Western Division champion was the "home" team, and LSU traditionally chooses to wear white jerseys for home games. Additionally, for the next three years (2010–2012), the Eastern Division representative wore their home jerseys because in 2011, LSU again represented the West; this happened again from 2018 to 2020 since LSU represented the West in 2019.
In the current format, the No. 1 seed is designated as the home team.
Rematches While SEC schools played every other member of their own division during the conference's divisional era, they did not play every member of the opposite division. With the end of divisional play, each SEC member will play only eight of the 15 other teams in the conference. Thus, the SEC Championship game is not guaranteed to be a rematch of a regular-season game. The SEC Championship game has featured a rematch of a regular-season game a total of nine times (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2017, 2024, 2025). The team which won the regular-season game is 6–3 in the rematches, the exceptions being 2001, 2017, and 2025.
Common matchups Matchups that have occurred more than once: 10Florida vs. AlabamaAlabama 6–41992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2016, 20205Georgia vs. LSULSU 3–22003, 2005, 2011, 2019, 20225Georgia vs. AlabamaAlabama 4–12012, 2018, 2021, 2023, 20252Florida vs. ArkansasFlorida 2–01995, 20062Tennessee vs. AuburnTied 1–11997, 20042Tennessee vs. LSULSU 2–02001, 2007
Selection criteria The SEC's tiebreakers changed when they eliminated divisions in 2024. The tiebreaker is applied to any number of tied teams, and is repeated until only one team (or two in the case of teams being tied for first and second in the standings) remains.
Tie-breaker procedure Head-to-head competition between the tied teams. Record versus all common conference opponents among the tied teams. Record against highest (best) placed common conference opponent in the conference standings, and proceeding through the conference standings among the tied teams. Cumulative Conference winning percentage of all conference opponents among the tied teams . Capped relative total scoring margin (see Appendix A) per SportSource Analytics versus all conference opponents among the tied teams. Random draw of the tied teams.
Game records